Money Monday: Planting and Yielding

“Your planting time and your yield time are not at the same time!”
Lisa Nicholes

Gradually, we have settled into our new home. We have settled into our new routine. And we had received a few wage slips, which Ahmed’s dad swears are the key to unimaginable riches in Australia; “As long as you get dis paper nah Australia, sky nah de limit!” he has repeatedly told us in conversation. Translation; “In Australia, ALL you need is a payslip and the sky is the limit!”

We were loving the Canberrean atmosphere. We had become drunk with the possibilities Canberra had to offer and we allowed ourselves to breathe in the smell of success, which now filled our lungs. First week we bought a car. Next week we were talking to the bank about buying a home. The Australian air was beginning to surge through our heart beats and our brains. We were functioning differently. I know it sounds overdramatic, but I’m telling you, Ahmed’s dad might have a point. But, was this what we actually wanted? When did this become the goal?

Routine! The family finally had a routine! But why was this a problem? We were settling back into our old routines; wake up… wash… work… home… sleep. Next day, repeat! We both knew this wasn’t what we were in Australia for. We had BIG plans. Pallara plans. And settling-in was just taking us back to South London and everything we were trying to get away from. We had to reevaluate the reason we made such a life altering transition, if our lives weren’t going to change.

One week into our new lives and we were on route to Ikea to buy a few bits for the kitchen and I decided to pop a Youtube video on to put us in the mood for some much needed planning. We felt like we had lost our way a bit and needed to get back on the road to success – “Yes, Yes!”. In London, we used to watch Lisa Nicoles’s videos on YouTube, every morning to get us in the ‘Go Get it” mind frame. Lisa is one of the world’s most-requested motivational speakers, with an inspirational story. Often, her straight talking allows us to refocus on our goals and gives us the much needed sass and a kick up the ‘sass’ we need to get us into gear!

When the video came on, Lisa was repeating her now familiar story, but with a few new details sprinkled into the plot. Today, she was using a farming analogy in one of her passionate motivational speeches. She talked about people’s plantings season’ and ‘yield season’ and how these two seasons were not at the same time. She explained that there are periods in life when we should focus our efforts and energy on “planting” (roots, ideas and financial) and not worry about the yield. This gave us a good opportunity to reflect on the past year, especially the last few months that we spent in the UK planning, saving, planning some more, then saving even more. We had a goal to run towards. In that last year, we had made a lot of sacrifices and at times it felt like we were missing out on so many things, because we prioritised our goal of migrating to the other side of the world. We had done a lot of planting, so when we arrived in Australia, we didn’t have to struggle financially. We wanted the yield to begin, but at that moment, we realised planting needed to continue.

Impromptu date nights in Starbucks to fill in the third version of the same application form… deciding whether to get a new outfit for work or put that £200 in the savings… New console? New shoes? Or do we keep the the saving? Finding the Australian Embassy in Central London… Early morning Skype calls with George… So much time spent doing these tasks.

Now, according to Lisa Nicoles, all these things were part of our planting season. As nerve wracking as it was, we now had to wait for shoots to sprout. We had laid the foundations for the yield but just like farming, we needed a lot of watering, weeding and other farming stuff before we reaped the yield. We had no guarantee that we would get a return, but we just kept on working away and believing that what’s for us will be for us. All this money, all this time invested without knowing if we would get a positive answer.

Goal achieved! After the approval of the visa, it felt like all the running was over and we had crossed the finish line. “We stopped running!” We had forgotten that this was not a sprint, but a marathon and we were only a quarter of the way to our goal. So, this video came at the right time to help us think about what our next move would be and how to position ourselves over the next few months and year to really set ourselves up for becoming self sustained. It was in that moment that we decided to continue to plant some more. Keep saving money, keep putting in more years, keep putting in more time and plan to yield in 3 years, 5 years or 9 years.

We have been living in Australia for 1 year… I know… where has the time gone? We have achieved a lot in this time but our goals have also grown with us, so we still have a way to go. One thing about us is that we genuinely enjoy each season, we both grew up with not much money and in areas with limited opportunities and resources, so I guess we learned to enjoy the planting, as there often was little to no yield time, just survival!